In a recent column in Electronic Design magazine, editor Don Tuite, NR7X, said the following:
Hypothesis: Doing away with the code requirement last March has completed a rejuvenation of ham radio that was triggered by the World Trade Center attacks and Katrina. I’m looking for reader comments yea and nay.
He goes on to say how in [...]

Earlier today, we activated the WA2HOM callsign for the first time at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. WA2HOM is the vanity callsign that I was issued specifically for operations at the Museum.
The first contact occurred at 1510Z with KA3FNH. Overall, we made 14 contacts, including nine SSB contacts and five CW contacts. Four of our [...]

The 12/27/06 edition of the New York Times contains the article, “A Fading Signal.”.
Paul Saffo opines in his 12/16/06 journal entry:
It is tempting to conclude that the FCC’s action spells the end of Morse, but I am certain we will see a very different outcome. Freed from all pretense of practical relevance in an [...]

Don, KB9UMT, moderator and owner of the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list came up with the following chart:
Year___ %Ham__US Population___# US Hams
1925___0.01%___115,829,000_____16,500
1930___0.02%___123,076,741_____19,000
1935___0.04%___127,250,232_____45,000
1940___0.04%___132,122,446_____55,788
1945___0.04%___139,928,165_____62,250
1950___0.05%___152,271,417_____81,450
1955___0.09%___165,931,202_____144,168
1960___0.13%___180,671,158_____227,500
1965___0.14%___194,302,963_____265,862
1966___0.14%___196,560,338_____268,129
1967___0.14%___198,712,056_____278,543
1968___0.14%___200,706,052_____275,628
1969___0.14%___202,676,946_____277,209
1970___0.14%___205,052,174_____279,658
1971___0.13%___207,660,677_____278,808
1972___0.13%___209,896,021_____274,389
1973___0.13%___211,908,788_____268,657
1974___0.13%___213,853,928_____271,373
1975___0.12%___215,973,199_____268,002
1976___0.13%___218,035,164_____283,473
1977___0.14%___220,239,425_____311,328
1978___0.16%___222,584,545_____350,780
1979___0.17%___225,055,487_____374,015
1980___0.17%___227,224,681_____393,353
1981___0.17%___229,465,714_____398,829
1982___0.18%___231,664,458_____408,361
1983___0.18%___233,791,994_____416,084
1984___0.18%___235,824,902_____433,921
1985___0.18%___237,923,795_____438,007
1986___0.18%___240,132,887_____433,921
1987___0.18%___242,288,918_____442,136
1988___0.19%___244,498,982_____455,642
1989___0.19%___246,819,230_____459,635
1990___0.19%___249,464,396_____466,511
1991___0.20%___252,153,092_____494,260
1992___0.21%___255,029,699_____524,782
1993___0.22%___257,782,608_____575,146
1994___0.24%___260,327,021_____614,398
1995___0.25%___262,803,276_____656,726
1996___0.25%___265,228,572_____661,775
1997___0.25%___267,783,607_____677,514
1998___0.25%___270,248,003_____676,809
1999___0.25%___272,690,813_____677,392
2000___0.25%___275,133,623_____682,240
2001___0.25%___275,279,000_____684,359
2002___0.25%___276,709,000_____685,308
2003___0.25%___278,112,000_____687,860
2004 672,622
2005 662,600
2006 654,291
Sources:

http://www.hamdata.com/fccinfo.html
http://www.ah0a.org/AH0A.html
http://www.ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html
http://hamcall.net/divisions_by_callsign.html
http://www.speroni.com/FCC/index.html
http://www.qrz.com/i/census.html?
http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/1_Amateur/A-1-9.htm

Don notes that the number of licensed amateurs has declined since 2003, and that the population of the U.S. has increased. If we use a figure of 300 million for the population [...]

Tim, N9PUZ says:
If you get bored with fretting over the loss of the CW testing requirement there is a lot of interesting reading about our early history here:

United States Early Radio History
Pioneering Amateurs (1900-1917)

This is a very cool website. Thanks, Tim!

Last week, the ARRL reported that they would “press” the FCC to release the “Omnibus” Amateur Radio Report and Order. Well, yesterday they got their wish. The executive summary of R&O FCC 06-149 states:
In this R&O, we amend the Part 97 Amateur Radio Service rules as follows:

revise the operating privileges of amateur radio operators to [...]

QST finally published my op-ed piece “No Ham Left Behind” in the September issue. I’ve already gotten several e-mail comments. A couple of them have mentioned restrictive homeowner’s agreements as a factor in ham inactivity. While I don’t mean to minimize the problem of restrictive covenants, there are ways to get around them.
First and [...]

In a message to the University of Michigan Amateur Radio Club’s mailing list, Vishal KD8DTF offered the following:

Hi everyone,
You may be aware of flood situation in India, especially in southern Gujarat, which is my home state. Until yesterday 70% of my home town, Surat, was flooded with water. In fact, there was 4 ft water [...]

The June 21, 2006 ARRL Letter had two items that seemed worthy of comment. The first, “FCC SUSPENDS HAM LICENSES FOR FAILURE TO MAINTAIN MAILING ADDRESS” reported on the suspension of five licenses for failing to maintain a valid mailing address in the FCC database.
Part 97.23 of the Amateur Radio Service regulations require licensees [...]

This from Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF:

Hi All,
At the recent Dayton Hamvention the newly formed Ham Radio Video Corps (HRVC) was unveiled to the ham radio public. As previously mentioned on this remailer, the HRVC, conceived by TV/Film Producer Dave Bell, W6AQ, following lengthy talks with Al Kaul, W6RCL, and others including Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, and [...]